The outside of St. Helens High School on March 13, 2025.
Joni Land / OPB
The St. Helens School District reached a resignation agreement with embattled superintendent Scot Stockwell on Wednesday, following months of community outcry calling for him to step down.
“Superintendent Scot Stockwell and the St. Helens School District have agreed to part ways, recognizing this decision is in the best interest of both parties,” the district said in a written statement to parents.
The St. Helens School Board unanimously voted to accept Stockwell’s resignation during its Wednesday meeting.
The exact details of the agreement are not immediately known. OPB has requested a copy of Stockwell’s resignation agreement, but has not received a response so far.
Stockwell, along with former high school principal Katy Wagner, have bore the brunt of the public backlash to the latest sexual abuse scandal to rock the school district. Almost immediately after police arrested Eric Stearns and Mark Collins for allegedly abusing multiple students, community members called for Stockwell and Wagner to be removed.
Police told OPB in November they found reports of sexual abuse made by students to school officials that were never forwarded to law enforcement or state officials.
The school board placed Stockwell on paid administrative leave in November soon after Stearns and Collins were arrested.
Prosecutors charged Wagner in November on two counts of criminal mistreatment and two counts of official misconduct in the first degree for failing to forward reports of sexual abuse.
Stockwell had served as superintendent since 2015 and is himself a graduate of St. Helens High School.
OPB could not immediately reach Stockwell for comment Thursday evening.
The school board also approved a corrective action plan in response to the sexual abuse scandal, which includes six areas for the district to ease the process for reporting suspected abuse in its schools.
The district had also promised for months it would release an internal investigation into the claims against Stearns and Collins. But this week, acting superintendent Karen Gray reneged, saying that because the district received notices of pending lawsuits, the report was now subject to attorney-client privilege.